‘WE DON’T AGREE’: HARISH RAWAT ON KHURSHID’S VIEWS IN HIS BOOK

HALDWANI: Congress national general secretary and former chief minister Harish Rawat said on Friday that Salman Khurshid should correct some statements in his book, ‘Sunrise over Ayodhya’, and avoid making such comparisons that strengthen the forces that vitiate the social fabric.

“Any politician or a wise man should avoid making such statements. This can be Salman Khurshid’s personal view, but Congress and we all don’t agree with it,” Rawat told the media in Haldwani, while reacting to the statements in the book.

In a chapter titled ‘The Saffron Sky’ in the newly launched book, senior Congress leader Khurshid has written, “Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years.”

When questioned about actor Kangana Ranaut’s recent statement that India got independence in real sense in 2014, Rawat said, “After some time these people will say that when Modi was born then India got freedom … This is the thinking of BJP people.”

He said, “We believe that there was awakening across the society, and Congress became the medium of that awakening…Mahatma Gandhi became the inspiration of that awakening…so BJP has nothing to do with Gandhi, or with the country’s independence.”

Ranaut recently sparked a controversy with her statement that India won true independence in 2014 when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, and not in 1947.

KHURSHID SHOULD CORRECT SOME STATEMENTS IN HIS BOOK, SAYS RAWAT